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The Chong Chol in Poets Biography & Poetry Resource Directory

The poet Chong Ch’ol 15361593 CE was born in Korea. He became an administrator whose career was affected by his unwavering sense of what was right combined with a proclivity to become involved in political disputes. This combination frequently led to removal sometimes announced as retirement from public office, usually coupled with banishment to exile in the countryside. Chong Ch’ol mastered of two classical forms of Korean poetry—the kasa and the sijo. Examples of the latter are given here. The kasa is the longer for the two forms and often deals with philosophical concerns. The sijo, a short popular song, appeared early in the Korean Joseon Dynasty*, and was often used for brief lyrical expression. It appeared at about the time of the invention of the Korean alphabet, Hangul, in 1444, which gave Korean writers the means of recording their work in their own language rather than in Chinese. In its structure, the sijo can be regarded either as a poem of six short lines or as one of three long lines that each have a pause in the middle. It is usually longer than the Japanese haiku.

Website: http://www.humanistictexts.org/chongchol.htm